HSBG Card LookupBattlegrounds overlay plugin for Hearthstone Deck Tracker

Why the update model changed

Since v0.1 the plugin could download and install its own updates. That design kept tripping Windows Defender: two separate waves of machine-learning false positives (Sabsik.TE.A!ml, then Wacatac.H!ml) flagged the updater's freshly downloaded plugin file — both times the same staged DLL the auto-updater had just written to disk. The files themselves are clean (VirusTotal: 0 detections across ~70 engines, including Microsoft's own), but the pattern — a program silently downloading a new DLL and writing it to disk — is exactly what Defender's heuristics distrust in software they don't know yet, and every new release is a file Defender has never seen before. v0.3.4 already softened the pattern (explicit consent, apply only after HDT exits) and it still got flagged. A plugin that periodically gets called a trojan loses far more trust than one extra manual step costs, so the auto-download is now gone entirely.

How updating works from v0.4.0 on

The plugin still checks for updates and tells you when one exists — a banner in the F3 overlay, a line in Settings > Updates, and a small "Update available" badge above the in-game search button. Installing is now always done by you, through your browser:

1. Click "Download page" — the GitHub release opens in your browser. 2. Download the zip and extract it. 3. Run install.bat — it closes HDT, installs the update, and offers to start HDT again.

That is the same one-minute flow as the first install. "Skip this version" still works if you want to sit a release out. The plugin itself never downloads or writes program files anymore, so the pattern both false-positive waves fired on no longer exists.

Notes for this particular update

• Getting to v0.4.0 itself still happens through your currently installed version's old mechanism — or manually: if its Download button fails or Defender interferes, just install from this page (download the zip, extract, run install.bat).
• v0.4.0 deletes the old updater's leftover staging files on startup. On some machines those leftovers were re-triggering a Defender warning on every HDT start; that stops once v0.4.0 runs.
• If Defender flags anything during this transition: it is a false positive — add the file to the exclusions list and contact .tantrum. on Discord to help with resolving the issue.

View on GitHub · HsbgCardLookup-v0.4.0.zip (1.8 MB)

Small follow-up to v0.3.4. An independent code review turned up one concrete, safe reduction: the updater's relaunch step was hiding its helper process two different ways at once (a PowerShell flag and a .NET process-creation flag), which is a specific pattern some antivirus ML heuristics weight on its own. One of those was redundant — the process was already fully hidden without it — so it's removed. No behavior change; the helper was never visible either way.

Everyone already on v0.3.4 will pick this up automatically the normal way. If you were still seeing a fresh Defender flag on every HDT launch after installing v0.3.4, this release is worth grabbing directly.

View on GitHub · HsbgCardLookup-v0.3.4.1.zip (1.8 MB)

Safer auto-updates. The plugin no longer swaps its own files while it's still running — an update now applies only after Hearthstone Deck Tracker has fully closed, right before it restarts. This removes the specific pattern (a live process silently overwriting its own loaded module) that our investigation identified as the most likely trigger behind recent Windows Defender Sabsik.TE.A!ml false-positive reports.

You're asked before anything downloads. Finding a new version no longer downloads it automatically — you'll see an "Update available" banner in the search overlay (and a small badge by the in-game 🔍 button) with Download / Skip options and a link to read the release notes first.

New: Settings → Updates. Check your installed version, check for updates, or finish a pending restart — all from Settings now, not just the search overlay.

If a previous update attempt was blocked (by Defender or anything else) and you're still on an older version, grab this release directly below.

View on GitHub · HsbgCardLookup-v0.3.4.zip (1.8 MB)

In-game search button. A magnifying-glass pill now sits beside the game's card-list book in the bottom-right of a Battlegrounds match — click it to open or close the card search. Handy if you never bound the F3 hotkey (or don't want to reach for it mid-shop). It can be turned off in Settings → Card search & floating cards.

Close button on the overlay. A small red ✕ in the overlay's top-right corner closes it. Together with the pill, the search is now usable end to end without touching the keyboard. Esc and the hotkey still work as before.

Dark Gifts fixes.

• The gift list no longer appears on Nightmare Lord Xavius' hero power — only the Dark Discovery button summons it. The game shows that hero power's enlarged card on its own (not just when you hover it), which could pop the panel with the cursor nowhere near it.
• The panel now waits for a brief hover before appearing, so sweeping the cursor past the button no longer flashes it, and it dismisses a little sooner once you look away.

View on GitHub · HsbgCardLookup-v0.3.3.zip (1.8 MB)

Fixes the Dark Gifts panel listing a Timewarped minion (Timewarped Leapfrogger) among the guaranteed-tribe minions.

Timewarped cards exist only in their own anomaly lobby, so the pool now excludes them by card category instead of relying on the isTimewarped data flag, which is missing on some card records.

View on GitHub · HsbgCardLookup-v0.3.2.1.zip (1.8 MB)

Trinket & anomaly HUD now draws inside HDT's own overlay. The HUD cards are no longer separate windows - dragging, resizing and right-clicking them can never pull focus away from Hearthstone, and they scale and move with the game window. Saved positions convert automatically (re-check them once via Settings -> Arrange).

Opponents' MMR: fully combinable display. Settings -> Opponents' MMR now offers two surfaces - the per-portrait labels and a new separate movable/resizable standings panel - plus individual switches for names, rating, daily change, the last-opponent marker and dead-player dimming. Tavern tiers get their own placement choice: off / by the portraits / in the panel / both. Any combination works: tiers only, a names-only panel, rating without names...

Notes: Arrange mode now needs Hearthstone running (the overlay only renders over the game).

View on GitHub · HsbgCardLookup-v0.3.2.zip (1.8 MB)

Dark Gifts panel now draws inside HDT's own overlay. It is no longer a separate window, so hovering, scrolling and right-clicking it can never pull focus away from Hearthstone. Scroll-while-hovering-the-button still works.

Opponents' MMR: new "Show opponent names" toggle (off by default). Settings -> Opponents' MMR -> the arrow. With names off, each portrait label shows just the rating and tavern tier - handy when streaming.

Fixes and cleanup: the panel can no longer get stuck on screen when the cursor leaves it.

View on GitHub · HsbgCardLookup-v0.3.1.zip (1.8 MB)

New in 0.3.0:

• Opponents' MMR on the leaderboard (opt-in, solo): name, rating and today's change on each portrait, plus tavern tier, dimmed dead players, and a marker on your last opponent.
• Settings reorganized into categories — each feature has its own toggle and page.
• Right-click a trinket/anomaly HUD card: close it until the match ends, or turn the feature off.
• Dark Gift panel display modes: gifts + minion pool, gifts only, or minions only — right-click the panel to switch.
• Match export now shows where CSVs are saved; new settings gear icon.

View on GitHub · HsbgCardLookup-v0.3.0.zip (1.8 MB)

New

• Choose where card art is stored. Settings → Card art folder → Change… lets you move the ~200 MB art cache off your system drive. It moves the existing art for you (no re-download).

Improved

• Cleaner search results. Derived cards — tokens, buddies, hero-power minions, and spellcraft / timewarped / battlecruiser / darkmoon / other special cards — now sort to the bottom of search results instead of flooding broad searches (by tribe, keyword, etc.). They still show, just out of the way, ordered by how often they're looked up.
  • Type the kind's name (buddy, token, timewarped, darkmoon, …) and those jump back to the top as before. Browse (empty search) is unchanged.

_Auto-updates for anyone already on 0.2.1+. (On 0.1.x? Install this once manually — extract + run install.bat — then updates apply on their own.)_

View on GitHub · HsbgCardLookup-v0.2.2.zip (1.8 MB)

Fixes

• Auto-update now works while HDT is running. The previous build couldn't replace its own in-use files and reported "Update couldn't be installed automatically." It now renames locked files aside and applies the new ones on restart.
  • ⚠️ One-time manual step: if you're on 0.1.1 or 0.2.0, that older updater still can't self-replace — install this version manually once (extract the zip, run install.bat). After that, future updates apply on their own.

New

• Quick access in the card detail pane — a small toolbar with a ⚙ Settings button, a ? for keybinds & tips, and the version number. No more digging through HDT's options to find Settings.

Also in 0.2.x

• Drag any card out of the overlay as a free-floating, resizable card.
• Live trinkets & anomaly HUD during a match (opt-in in Settings).
• Mana-cost search filter (cost 2).

View on GitHub · HsbgCardLookup-v0.2.1.zip (1.8 MB)

New

• 🃏 Drag any card out of the overlay as a free-floating, resizable card — great for explaining cards to viewers on stream or in a video, or pinning a few in a corner for reference.
• 🎲 Live trinkets & anomaly HUD — your current lesser/greater trinkets and the lobby anomaly shown right on screen during a match (opt-in in Settings). Handy for streaming or solo play, and especially for phone viewers who can't open HDT's Twitch extension to see the active anomaly / the streamer's trinkets.
• 🔎 Mana-cost search filter — type cost 2 (or cost2) to filter cards by mana cost.

Notes

• New Settings toggles: card drag-out (from the detail art and/or the results grid) and the trinkets / anomaly HUD.
• Move a floating card by dragging its body, resize from the top-right corner, right-click to dismiss.
• The update applies automatically — restart HDT to finish.

View on GitHub · HsbgCardLookup-v0.2.0.zip (1.8 MB)

What's new

• Lesser / Greater trinket search. Type greater trinket or lesser trinket to filter trinkets by tier; when Trinket is selected in the filter menu, a Lesser / Greater / All switch appears.
• Smart about it: a bare greater/lesser (or names like Greater Pouches) still matches by name, and trinket lesser greater takes the first tier as the filter and the rest as a name/text search.
• Adds a Ukrainian README on the repo page.

Auto-updates from v0.1.0. Fresh install: extract the zip and run install.bat (or drop the HsbgCardLookup folder into %APPDATA%\HearthstoneDeckTracker\Plugins\), then restart HDT.

View on GitHub · HsbgCardLookup-v0.1.1.zip (1.8 MB)

First public release of HSBG Card Lookup, an in-game Hearthstone Battlegrounds card search overlay for Hearthstone Deck Tracker.

Install

1. Download HsbgCardLookup-v0.1.0.zip below and extract it. 2. Double-click install.bat (closes HDT, copies the plugin into place) — or drop the HsbgCardLookup folder into %APPDATA%\HearthstoneDeckTracker\Plugins\. 3. Start HDT and press F3.

First launch downloads card art in the background (~200 MB, one time); after that data + art self-update.

Features

• Fast fuzzy + structured search (t3, 5/5, tribes, keywords, spell schools)
• Full card art, golden variants, related cards
• In-app patch-notes notifications
• Self-updating card data/art; plugin auto-updates from future GitHub releases

Windows + HDT only. See the README for details.

View on GitHub · HsbgCardLookup-v0.1.0.zip (1.8 MB)